My recent blog post got a very interesting comment and question pertaining to the future identity and strength of the young and promising FAWSL brand – specifically to the linking between the men’s clubs and women’s clubs.
Right now there are two types of women’s teams in operation – those who are affiliated with famous and established men’s clubs – the likes of Arsenal, Olympique Lyon, Liverpool and VfL Wolfsburg, and those who were founded, established and operated as ‘women-specific’ clubs – such as FFC Frankfurt, Turbine Potsdam and the Scottish champions Glasgow City.
Many would imagine that those teams who are affiliated with big men’s clubs have a clear advantage – access to potential huge funding for starters, but also being able to attract a larger following (i.e. the fans of the men’s team) and for them to use their renowned names to attract the better players, who cannot be faulted for dreaming of being paid to pull on the shirt of some of the most illustrious clubs on the planet.
And yet, one does not necessarily lead to the other, as the history of the game in Europe shows. Yes, Arsenal and Lyon have been able to use these advantages consistently over the years to build strong teams, dominate their leagues and challenge regularly in the UEFA Women’s Champions’ League – but there are many cases where this link-up hasn’t led to success, and indeed been detrimental to the women’s game.
One example would be the withdrawal of a decent and competitive Hamburger SV team a couple of seasons back from the Frauen Bundesliga. Another would be the folding up of Charlton Athletic’s successful women’s team in 2007.
What had gone wrong with these women’s teams, then? The answer is nothing – it was the men’s section that had gone pear shaped! Charlton were relegated form the Premier League, HSV had developed a financial issues around having an expensive Bundesliga Team languishing around the relegation zone.
How can a women’s club build up a strong team, with a stable set of fans and a growing brand if it could all be blown to bits tomorrow by the failings of an entirely separate men’s club!?!
Furthermore, the potential source of fans has rarely (so far) come to fruition. Indeed the best supported teams in the Frauen Bundesliga are Turbine Potsdam and FFC Frankfurt – arguably the two biggest ‘women-specific’ teams in Europe.
These ‘women-specific’ teams do not live under the threat of being wound up due to the fecklessness of overpaid men’s teams failing big style, and with the typical structure of German clubs giving members such a big say in the running of the club, will try always to operate in their own best interests. On the other side, money will always be a worry, and lead to the constant search for friendly corporate sponsorship.
Seven of the current FAWSL members are instantly recognisable by their names as offshoots or collaborations with big established men’s teams. The eighth team, Bristol Academy, recently announced a strengthening of their ties with Bristol City FC – a key requirement for clubs wishing to be part of the FAWSL expansion next year.
Perhaps the reader who commented was worried (perhaps justly) that this obligatory link with men’s clubs may lead to the FAWSL struggling to be taken seriously as a separate league and may end up being of the same status as the leagues for reserve teams and youth teams.
As dreadful a fate as this would be, there are sound reasons for the FA to go down this particular road, much of them to do with being able to create a stable and permanent league offering good quality football with potential access to top coaching within the family structure of the big club (see Liverpool Ladies being given a day of coaching with the men’s first team for example).
But it is also an issue of the history of the way the game has developed in England. Hugely successful ‘women-specific’ clubs such as Turbine Potsdam and FFC Frankfurt founded themselves in the early 1970s and spent decades building themselves, their brand (or name) and their fan base up slowly as successful professional women’s football clubs during times when the women’s game received next to no attention.
In among the 33 teams aiming to gain WSL status next season there may be some ‘women-specific’ clubs, but is hard to imagine a independent ‘women-specific’ club now being able to make that kind of impact from a standing start in England. Turbine Potsdam and FFC Frankfurt have both been Champions of Europe and are stuffed with internationals. Frankfurt’s budget for players is and to be around €9million a year! The only English team with that kind of impact is Arsenal.
To be honest, it is a shame that this development didn’t happen in England.
The best women’s league in Europe right now (in my opinion) for competitiveness and quality is the German Frauen Bundesliga, and it is a league which is made up of both types of clubs (Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg, Leverkusen and Freiburg being affiliated clubs, Postdam, Frankfurt, Duisburg, Bad Neuenahr, SGS Essen and Jena more or less ‘women-specific’).
Thankfully all the affiliated clubs are taking it seriously. VfL Wolfsburg really went for it in the past two seasons building up a squad which is flying high in the league, into the German Cup Final and the semi-finals of the Champions’ League. Bayern are quietly developing their own young dynamic team of challengers (they have Lena Lotzen for crying out loud and will have the superbly talented Leonie Maier next season) and are capable of beating anyone on their day. Freiburg and Leverkusen are filled with young players who are improving and becoming more irritating and difficult to beat by the week.
But also the ‘women-specific’ clubs are far from cowed by the Mega-Names, with Turbine and Frankfurt chasing down Wolfsburg and still stuffed with top players (not to mention topping the attendance figures weekly).
It cannot be denied that the charm of the Bundesliga is partly down to this wonderful contrast between the recognisable names of the men’s game and the ‘only found here’ clubs who do not have any men’s teams. It marks it out completely from any other ‘reserve’ or ‘youth’ league and makes it special, which is possibly part of the reason it got to have it’s own special ‘breakthrough’ moment on Saturday afternoon.
Eurosport has been a decent friend to women’s football recently, showing a good few internationals, the U20 World Cup and the Algarve Cup live, as well as a few selected games from France’s Division 1 League (on Eurosport France)
On Saturday a German Frauen Bundesliga game was broadcast live on a Eurosport Germany for the first time ever, and the game they chose epitomises this charming uniqueness of the Frauen Bundesliga: FC Bayern München vs Turbine Potsdam. Last years Cup Winners vs last season Champions. The famous Bayern as underdogs in their own stadium against the increasingly famous Turbine Potsdam.
The small stadium was full (nearly 900 in attendance), the snow was gone even if the weather conditions were pretty awful, and the stakes for Turbine were high…
Unfortunately for this Turbine fan, the game didn’t go the was I would have wished. From the start Bayern were all energy and skill and Lena Lotzen was centre of much of their play, buzzing around the centre of the park as if out to give the TV viewers something to think about. She was unlucky not to have won a penalty when she was hauled down in the area by the 16 year old prospect for Turbine, Pauline Bremer, however it should have been Potsdam going in to half time leading by one or two having fluffed clear and gaping chances.
The second half was only a few seconds old though when a collective brain freeze in the Turbine defence allowed Lotzen in on goal and she coolly slotted past Naeher for 1-0, before being buried under her team in an epic celebratory bundle (always fun to see).
Turbine never really got their rhythm back after that, and Lotzen capped a fine display with a stunning second in the 72nd minute, smashing the ball past Naeher from outside the area. It was a first win for Bayern over Turbine since 2008, and a very good game to showcase the Frauen Bundesliga for an encouragingly decent number of viewers (especially considering it was played at the same time as the men’s Bundesliga games!).
One hopes that the viewers who watched the game may feel that it was something they would like to tune into again, or even regularly, and maybe Eurosport is thinking of just that kind of direction – much as maybe the BBC and ESPN may hope the same for the FA WSL. In this case however, the fact that a game like “Bayern Munich vs Turbine Potsdam” or VfL Wolfsburg vs FFC Frankfurt” can ONLY be found in the Frauen Bundesliga is something that will help mark it out from all other leagues and sports and help cement a base of viewers.
I’m not saying that women’s football will not flourish in England in future, but I do think that it will often miss those “only possible here” fixtures that the Bundesliga now enjoys. Arsenal vs Liverpool exists in both the Premier League and the FAWSL, while Doncaster Rovers Belles vs Chelsea is possible in both the FA Cup, the League Cup and the FAWSL. That said, it is not necessarily an impediment to the development of the league, just as the Bundesliga may in 10 years time no longer be a place where small ‘women-specific’ clubs can survive (a horrible thought).
In the absence of those ‘women-specific’ teams the big clubs need to make an effort to treat and consider the women’s section as the OTHER first team, and not just a gimmick or novelty to fill a few web pages and employ a few extra people.
Olympique Lyon treat their women’s team as a big deal (whatever their ex-men’s manager may say), and PSG are also going down this road of having two ‘first’ teams. Liverpool seem to be on that road too, emphasising the one club-one family mentality that sounds promising.
But one or two seasons of this is not enough. It needs (like any team you want to build) time, patience and determination. Liverpool, Chelsea, PSG, and all other big clubs need to want to be champions of both men’s and women’s games. If that happens, the FA WSL will be in a good and healthy state when 2020 rolls in.
Pictured – Action from Turbine Potsdam at home to Glasgow City in the UEFA Women’ Champions League. (Photo – Cas Stewart)
SHE KICKS – the online community for women’s football
